Bongaon, Jan. 23: Traffic on the Indo-Bangla route was hit today because truck-drivers’ unions called a day-long strike after one of their colleagues, who was assaulted by border troops last night, succumbed to his injuries.

Santosh Biswas, 50, died while his helper, Paritosh Das, 45, who had rushed to the driver’s aid when the BSF jawans beat him up, is in hospital.

A murder case has been initiated against the jawans on duty at the spot last night, but till late this evening no arrests were made.

The striking truckers held up the two buses run by the government to Bangladesh — one going to Dhaka and another returning — since morning.

Police sources said Santosh crossed the border with a valid permit around 11 last night when BSF jawans were cleaning the road, allegedly with the help of cleaners of other trucks.

Unaware of the drive, Santosh drove on to the area that was being washed. An irked BSF jawan on duty asked him help clean-up the stretch. He refused, and the enraged jawan beat him up.

A senior BSF official said no jawan had beaten up anyone. “The driver had a weak heart and succumbed to it,” he said.